CONDUCT UNBECOMING

CONDUCT UNBECOMING. Last month, I spoke on the phone with a former army officer, S.P., who told me he had been invited to Fort Lewis, Washington, by Lt. Ehren Watada. Watada, as you may recall, became a minor media celebrity last summer when he refused to go to Iraq because he did not support the war. (He said he�d go to Afghanistan instead, but the army said no.) Watada could be sentenced to up to four years for "missing movement" and "conduct unbecoming a gentleman" (in his case, that means criticizing the Bush administration), and he had hoped S.P. would speak in his defense at the court-martial in Fort Lewis.
A couple days ago, though, S.P. told me his trip had been called off because the judge had rejected Watada�s request to have him testify. In fact, the judge has turned down all of Watada�s requests for witnesses, according to Elizabeth L. Hillman, a Rutgers professor and author of Defending America: Military Culture and the Cold War Court-Martial. Watada should not be forced to go to Iraq, says Hillman. "We want volunteers in the army and this is someone who's had an attack of conscience," she tells me. "It makes no sense for the army to want him to serve time in the stockade." Chances are, though, he will. Military-law experts tell me roughly 90 percent of courts-martial end in conviction. Watada's trial is scheduled for Monday, February 5.
--Tara McKelvey